“The Diary of Anne Frank,” by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman, is based on the book “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.” The play tells the true story of Anne Frank and her family while they were in hiding from the Nazis for two years during World War II.

The play is directed by GreenMan Theatre’s artistic director, David Soria. It stars Emma Boghossian of Palatine as Anne; Peter Michael Piane of Bolingbrook and Mary Kuhn of Naperville as Otto and Edith Frank, Anne’s parents; and Bethany Paulsen of North Aurora as Margot Frank, Anne’s sister.

They chose “Anne Frank” to open the season for a variety of reasons, Soria said.

“At GreenMan, we have a play reading committee that looks for challenging material, interesting material. We have done a number of plays over the years that have a literary adaptation. It is also a play that is very much an ensemble piece,” he said. “It features Anne in a significant way, but it is about all of the characters and the circumstances they are in and offers a really great opportunity for the core of the actors.”

There are eight actors that portray the characters that go into hiding and two actors who are the families’ contacts with the outside world, he said.

“For that core group of eight actors, they have tremendous opportunity — and I would say challenge — to create their characters, portray them and interact with each other and they are, for the most part, on stage for the entire play,” he said. “I would also add I think the material speaks to our current time. I think you have to tread carefully when making pointed comparisons between Nazi Germany and Europe in the ’30s and ’40s and our own time, but I don’t think you need to look very hard to realize that when you have rallies of white supremacists happening in this country, that this play is something that needs to be seen, should be seen; that lessons of that time period are sadly not far away from our own.”

The play is based on the real-life diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl living in Nazi Germany. She and her family moved to Amsterdam as Hitler came to power, but as the war broke out, they were forced to go into hiding. The Franks and another family, the Van Daans, went into hiding in empty rooms in her father’s old company. They were joined shortly by Mr. Dussel, a dentist.

“So the eight of them were in hiding in an annex and as you can imagine, it was a rather claustrophobic existence,” Soria said. “They try their best to keep up with the daily rituals of life — mealtimes together, interaction between the families — and they run into the tension you might expect to be present for a group being forced to live under very trying circumstances. But they do their best to maintain the day-to-day life — celebrating Hanukkah. In one scene, they receive news of the D-Day invasion with great hopes they will be liberated soon.”

The eight people in the Secret Annex were eventually discovered and Anne and Margot died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Otto Frank, her father, was the only member of the family to survive. He was later given his daughter’s diary and worked to have it published.

“It is one of the best-selling books of the 20th century,” he said. “It is a remarkable record of the time and two families’ journey and experience of the war being in hiding. It tells a coming of age story for Anne. She’s 13 when she goes into hiding and she’s 15 when she dies in 1945. Anne is our narrator throughout the play. She speaks to the audience and we see her grow and change as the reality of life in the annex catches up with her.”

The play is surprisingly not without humor, he said.

“We appreciate their foibles,” Soria said. “They are fully rounded and fully human characters and have their humorous moments as a family. It certainly is a drama … but if an audience comes in thinking they are just going to be beat over the head with the subject matter — no. There is humor, there is the ebb and flow of daily life. Obviously, the reality of living under Nazi occupation, of being in hiding and ultimately the reality of the Holocaust is never far from the characters’ minds. But I think that audiences will find it to be both an illuminating and moving experience and a richly human story about these characters. I would encourage people to not skip the play thinking it is going to be just a dreary slog through a history lesson.”

He gives it a PG-13 rating. He thinks audiences will not only be educated by the play but also moved, he said.

“Anne’s writing, the way she confronts the reality of her experience — ultimately, her fate is sad but what she teaches us is really about the human spirit in the face of adversity and I think that is something that audiences crave,” he said. “It’s not surprising that some of her writings end up on posters. Even in some of her darkest times, she preserved a positive and uplifting attitude about human potential and I think there’s a great lesson there that the play can bring to an audience.”

The Frank family is, from left to right, Peter Piane as Otto Frank, Emma Boghossian as Anne Frank, Bethany Paulsen as Margot Frank and Mary Kuhn as Edith Frank. “The Diary of Anne Frank” will be performed by GreenMan Theatre Sept. 28-Oct. 14.

The Frank family is, from left to right, Peter Piane as Otto Frank, Emma Boghossian as Anne Frank, Bethany Paulsen as Margot Frank and Mary Kuhn as Edith Frank. “The Diary of Anne Frank” will be performed by GreenMan Theatre Sept. 28-Oct. 14. (Ken Beach)